Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi today vowed to keep troops in Iraq despite the killing of an Italian hostage in scenes television station Al Jazeera said were too bloody to screen.
"They have destroyed a life. They have not cracked our values and our efforts for peace," Mr Berlusconi said in a statement after the killing of security guard Mr Fabrizio Quattrocchi.
The killing by a previously unheard-of Iraqi group followed a spate of kidnappings that has snared foreign civilians from at least a dozen countries this month, Iraq's bloodiest period since Saddam Hussein was ousted a year ago.
It was the first time in the kidnappings that a group had openly publicised a hostage killing.
Al Jazeera said the kidnappers were threatening to kill three other Italian hostages, who like Mr Quattrocchi worked for a US private security firm, if Italy did not withdraw its troops from the US-led coalition in Iraq.
Italy said earlier it would not give in to "blackmail" to save the hostages but was working with Iran and others for their release. Mr Berlusconi's office said after news of the killing that the prime minister was sending a senior official to Iraq immediately to try and save the lives of the remaining hostages.
Mr Berlusconi sent almost 3,000 troops to Iraq and has been a staunch supporter of US President George W. Bush, but there have been signs of nervousness among other US allies amid the hostage-taking and violence sweeping Iraq.
Kidnappers freed a French journalist yesterday, but more than a dozen foreigners remained captive. Japan, which also has troops in Iraq, said it was investigating reports two more Japanese had been taken hostage, in addition to three last week.
The US military, embroiled in a two-front battle against radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's militia and Sunni guerrillas, announced eight more American soldiers had died in combat, bringing to 93 the number killed in action in April.
Two explosions echoed over central Baghdad this morning and smoke was seen rising south of the US-led administration's headquarters, witnesses said.